Syndicate
.]] The Syndicate was a secretive organization that represented certain global interests. The Syndicate was formed in 1973 and destroyed in 1999. The group involved multiple members of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of State. They conceived of and managed the Project. History Early Years The group that became the Syndicate existed as early as 1952 as a secret group within the State Department. Their activities included experimenting with xenotransplantation, (TXF: "Travelers") relocating ex-Nazi scientists to the United States after World War II, (TXF: "Paper Clip") and covering up the "black oil" discovered in the Piper Maru in 1953. (TXF: "Apocrypha") The Project .]] The members of the secretive group within the State Department officially broke off ties with the United States government in 1973. However, some of the members continued to claim that they worked within the State Department. On October 13, the Syndicate formally forged their alliance with the alien colonists at El Rico Air Force Base. The Cigarette Smoking Man personally presented a folded American flag to the aliens, symbolizing their surrender to a superior intergalactic force. The Syndicate was also commencing their work on the Project, which would see an immense effort in creating an alien/human hybrid to serve the aliens as a slave race after colonization. To allow the Syndicate to develop the hybrid, they were provided an alien fetus from which to extract DNA and begin research. However, the aliens demanded, in exchange, samples of human DNA. Members of the Syndicate turned over their loved ones to the aliens as human collateral. The Smoking Man handed over his wife, Cassandra Spender, and William Mulder reluctantly surrendered his daughter, Samantha, who was abducted from her bed at a later date. (TXF: "One Son") Prior to March 7, 1992, FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, William Mulder's son, had been trying to access classified government information but someone at a higher level of power had been blocking his attempts to get at it. Mulder stated, shortly thereafter, that the only reason he had been allowed to continue his work was because he had made connections in Congress. A possible reason why his attempts to access the information had been blocked was because the Syndicate were afraid he would leak the information. On March 6, 1992, the Syndicate was responsible for assigning Special Agent Dana Scully to work with Agent Mulder. By March 22, 1992, the Syndicate had use of a vast warehouse in the Pentagon, where artifacts constituting evidence of alien existence were stored. The Cigarette Smoking Man added an implant, recovered by Mulder and Scully on their first case together, to the items kept in this storage facility. As Mulder and Scully learned, other efforts to erase their findings were apparently made, including the disappearance of paperwork, such as a case file on Billy Miles, that the agents had filed with the District Attorney's office in Raymon County, Oregon. (TXF: "Pilot") Destruction s rebels.]] In 1998, the Syndicate learned of a rebel faction among the aliens that was fighting against their brethren and the colonization of Earth. The first incident of rebel violence on Earth occurred in Kazakhstan, where dozens of impending abductees were found incinerated. Marita Covarrubias investigated the incident and quickly had it covered up. Shortly thereafter, many more abductees were summoned to Skyland Mountain, via metallic tags implanted inside their own bodies. Again, the group was attacked and incinerated by the alien rebels. It was at this time that the rebels were more clearly identified as being faceless, a telltale characteristic that set them apart as the rebel force. (TXF: "Patient X") In 1999, the rebels made their most daring and destructive move. Outside of Washington, D.C., they attacked a train car, wherein a group of Syndicate doctors, led by Eugene Openshaw, were experimenting on Cassandra Spender – the first successful alien/human hybrid. The rebels incinerated the doctors, but left Spender alive so that the Project would be revealed and subsequently destroyed. Indeed, one of the rebels killed the Second Elder and assumed his position at meetings of the Syndicate. However, the Cigarette Smoking Man realized this and had the group cease meeting together. (TXF: "Two Fathers") Smoking Man contacted his son, Jeffrey Spender, and charged him with killing the rebel posing as the Second Elder with a gimlet weapon. Spender failed to kill him but Alex Krycek was successful in doing so. Spender then realized the scope of the conspiracy being carried out by his father, and he pledged his support to Fox Mulder. Having their hand forced by the rebels, the Syndicate retrieved Cassandra Spender and prepared to present her to the aliens, so that colonization could begin. However, the rebels appeared instead and incinerated the entire group of gathered high-ranking Syndicate members. Cassandra Spender was presumably killed along with them. Having operated for twenty-six years, the Syndicate was destroyed. (TXF: "One Son") Legacy Later in 1999, Scully asked Mulder what more he could possibly hope to do or to find, after having done and uncovered so much, such as exposing the secrets of a conspiracy of men who had been doing human experiments but were all now dead. Mulder's reply was that he still hoped to find his sister. (TXF: "Biogenesis") Mention of the Syndicate featured in a dream reality Mulder experienced soon thereafter, in which an illusory version of the CSM claimed that his group had "made entire cultures disappear." (TXF: "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati") In reality, the CSM continued working on the Project with a group of men who held a conference to discuss colonization in 1999. (TXF: "Biogenesis") The CSM also continued working with his doctors, who were aware of the Syndicate's work to create a human/alien hybrid and attempted to continue this work. (TXF: "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati") CSM met with a group of men, some in military uniforms, who spoke about some sort of disaster and "containment" of it. (TXF: "Biogenesis") :Presumably, this assembly of men are speaking about colonization. They may be part of the CSM's intentions, revealed in "Requiem", to try and rebuild the conspiracy. When the CSM later revealed to Agent Scully that he believed Samantha Mulder was dead, Scully wondered why the CSM had not admitted to this knowledge earlier but he replied that there had been "so much" to protect before, all of which was now gone. (TXF: "Closure") :The CSM was, presumably, referring to the Syndicate and/or their work. In 2001, Lizzy Gill admitted to Agent Mulder, Assistant Director Walter Skinner and Special Agent John Doggett that, for the past ten years, she and her colleagues had been working to create a human/alien hybrid. According to her, the work had originally been financed by a group of government men but had continued after their death. Gill's colleagues, by this time, included Doctors Parenti and Lev as well as Duffy Haskell, but they had each been recently killed by supersoldier Billy Miles. (TXF: "Essence") After the Cigarette Smoking Man's apparent death in 2000, other groups worked on the Project, often with the assistance of supersoldiers. (TXF: "The Truth") In 2016, former Syndicate members Erika Price and Mr. Y planned to take down the Cigarette Smoking Man and stop his scheme to depopulate the human race, although this was so they could carry out an unknown agenda of their own. (TXF: "My Struggle III") Organization Many members of the Syndicate met in a secured house on 46th Street, New York City. (TXF: "The Blessing Way", et al.) They were also known to meet and operate as far away as London and Tunisia. (The X-Files Movie) Members The highest known ranking member was Conrad Strughold, who held power over the Well-Manicured Man. (The X-Files Movie) The many associates who worked under the Well-Manicured Man included (TXF: "The Blessing Way"): * First Elder * Second Elder * Third Elder * Cigarette Smoking Man * "Deep Throat" (TXF: "Paper Clip") * Victor Klemper (TXF: "Paper Clip") * William Mulder (TXF: "Paper Clip") After the Well-Manicured Man's death, the First Elder ran the group. His members consisted of (TXF: "The Beginning"): * Second Elder * Third Elder * Cigarette Smoking Man * Alex Krycek (TXF: "One Son") Operatives Many agents and enforcers worked under the Syndicate, not always knowing who or what they were working for. They also occasionally employed Alien Alien Bounty Hunters. (TXF: "Colony") These included: * Luis Cardinal (TXF: "One Breath") * Scott Ostlehoff (TXF: "Gethsemane") * Quiet Willy (TXF: "Redux II") * "Black-Haired Man" (TXF: "The End") * "Crew Cut Man" (TXF: "The Erlenmeyer Flask") * "Gray-Haired Man" (TXF: "Piper Maru") * "Red-Haired Man" (TXF: "Nisei") * "X" (TXF: "Talitha Cumi") Background Check Name The word "Syndicate" was only used three times in the series: * In "Two Fathers", the CSM states, "I've called an emergency meeting of the Syndicate." * In "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati", the CSM tells Mulder in a dream sequence, "At some point, I realized that if the Syndicate didn't kill you, the FBI would." * In "The Truth", Marita Covarrubias states, "...to further the interests of a secretive group of men who called themselves the Syndicate." Skinner references the Syndicate twice more during this scene. Additionally, the Well-Manicured Man uses the term "consortium" in the episode "The Blessing Way" to vaguely refer to the Syndicate. He specifically states, "I'm a member of a kind of consortium. We represent certain global interests." Much like other events and plots in The X-Files, series creator Chris Carter based this organization on the Majestic 12, a group rumored to exist in real life, with the same goals and interests. Appearances Additional References *TXF: **"Biogenesis" (Season 6) **"The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" (Season 7) **"The Truth" (Season 9) **"My Struggle III" (Season 11) External links Syndicate Category:Organizations